A Practical Guide to Law Firm SEO in 2019 (Lawyer SEO Tips That Work Fast)

Struggling to make a name for your law agency? Looking for ways to beat the competition? The solution is law firm SEO.

Yes, my friend, you read it right.

A company specializing in doing SEO for law firms can improve your online visibility and help you stand out from the crowd.

It is not only 82% of smartphone users who consult their smartphones on purchases they are thinking about making in-store, a big percentage of people also conduct online research about law firms they are about to visit.

Effective lawyer SEO will improve the search visibility of your law firm and can help you feature on the first page of Google when your potential clients are searching for a law firm.

In today’s’ article, I’m going to discuss the best law firm SEO tips to improve the search visibility of your law firm.

After reading this article, you will be familiar with practical law firm SEO tactics that deliver fast results in 2019.

Without further ado, let’s dive in:

The Best Strategies for Law Firm SEO in 2019

Law firm SEO, in core techniques, is not different than regular SEO.

So almost the same rules of keyword research, On-page optimization, Technical optimization, and Off-Page optimization apply to attorney SEO.

We will discuss all the aspects of law firm optimization in details.

As this article is long, I have divided this article into different sections and added links to those sections for easy navigation.

Keyword Research

I will not be exaggerating if I say there is no such thing like lawyer SEO without keywords.

Right keywords for your law firm work like a guidepost for your SEO campaigns.

How will you find lucrative keywords for your law firm to base your SEO efforts on?

Well, this is what I’m going to explain next:

1- Start with Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are the base keywords for SEO of law firm. Some SEO experts also refer to these keywords as niche keywords.

As law firms practice in different areas, such as commercial litigation, real estate law, personal injury law, labor and employment law, family law, bankruptcy law, and more, finding right seed keywords depend on your law practice areas.

Search your specialty on Google Keyword Planner, you will get ideas for seed keywords for your law firm.

2- Find Out What Your Competitors Are Doing

Once you have made a list of seed keywords, you should google these keywords and make a data of websites ranking on the first page.

With the help of paid tools like SEMrush and ahrefs, you can find other keywords that these websites rank for.

Law Firm SEO: Technical SEO

Technical SEO just refers to any SEO work that is done aside from the content. Essentially, it’s laying a strong foundation to give your content the best chance it can have to rank for relevant keywords and phrases.

That being said, you should fix all the issues related to technical SEO of your law firm.

Following are some important aspects of technical SEO for a law firm:

Use Structured Data

Google is working towards offering rich results. And Structured data help Google understand page data with more clarity and present that page more attractively on Google search.

See how our blog post on index coverage issues stands out from other search results because of structured data.

Schema.org has a large collection of pieces of code. You can search this site to find the markup you need for the particular page of your law agency.

Use Canonical Tags

Your law agency might have content that can be found on multiple URLs or multiple websites. The canonical tag is a way to tell search engines that a specific URL represents the original copy of a page.

Create Custom 404 Page

A 404 page is what a user sees when they try to reach a non-existent page on your site (because they’ve clicked on a broken link, the page has been deleted, or they’ve mistyped a URL).

This is how a 404 page looks like. As 404 page can appear even when somebody types a wrong URL, you cannot completely remove it.

Now, you must be thinking that 404 pages will hurt the SEO of your law agency.

Can use 404 pages to enhance law firm SEO?

Yes, you can.

What you have to do is to create custom 404 pages and fill them with 10-15 important links. This will encourage visitors to click on links relevant to their search queries, increasing search traffic on your law agency.

“In many ways, a customized 404 page with internal links is like an SEO magic bullet,” says Neil Patel.

Law Firm SEO: Off-Page

Off-page activities are all the things that are done outside your law agency website to increase its ranking. Though completed outside of your law agency website, off-page SEO activities are important to the SEO of your law firm.

I have listed top lawyer off-page SEO activities in 2019, which will improve the ranking of your law agency:

Create and Distribute content

Content and SEO go hand in hand.

You will have to create and distribute tons of content to improve off-page signals.

Common types of content that you can include are guest posts, interviews, infographics, and videos.

Writing guest columns at leading online platforms in your domain not only helps create authority but also promotes your law agency at the same time.

Here are some pro tips to choose legal websites for guest posting:

Use a tool like Ninja Outreach to find relevant sites in your niche

Pick high authority websites

Write a custom outreach mail – avoid using templates

Go for the sites that have relevant traffic

Quality content is imperative for lawyer SEO. The better your content, the better it will perform.

Be Active in Forums

Every industry has some forums where its audience asks questions.

For SEO industry, Warrior Forum, SEO Chat, Google Webmaster Central Help, and Digital Point are some popular forums.

You should search for popular legal forums where people ask questions. And start answering questions. Doing so will not only help with law firm SEO but also make you an authority in the industry.

How can you find popular law forums?

It is easy – just google for ‘popular legal forums’ and prepare a list.

Consistency is the key to successful forum posting. You can create your authority only when you regularly post on legal forums.

Social Media Promotion

Social media marketing is important for your law agency SEO.

Off-page SEO is all about creating a name for your law agency. And social media promotion can do it for you.

By promoting your law agency on social media, you can:

Increase brand recognition

Improve brand loyalty

Get more opportunities to find clients

Increase inbound traffic

Offer richer client experience

Make an aggressive strategy to promote your law agency on social media.

In addition to supporting your off-page SEO, social media promotion of your law agency also helps you reach more clients who are searching for legal help.

Paid Promotion

Off-page activities for your law firm cannot be completed without including paid promotion in your to-do activities.

Now you must be thinking that why you will need paid promotion when you are doing all the organic off-page SEO activities.

My friends, be it Google Search or Social Media, paid promotion offers a quick boost to your law agency, not to forget organic reach is dying on social media.

2 comments on this post

The extent of severe competition in the industry has made it extremely difficult for the businesses to establish the name in the industry. I think the facts or tips discussed in the post will surely help lawyers or law firms to ensure visibility and this will enhance the prospect of getting more and more clients. Good one!